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Much before Karan Johar signed him up for Student Of The Year, newcomer Varun Dhawan had entirely different plans for his film career. He actually wanted to be in Hollywood and this wasn’t just one of those many fantasies that youngsters carry. He actually travelled to Hollywood and also gave quite a few auditions there.
“He wanted to start very young but many around him discouraged him stating that most newcomers who went to be superstars had started off rather late, case in point being Hrithik Roshan and Ranbir Kapoor. He was told that in Bollywood one had to wait a little more time before things fell in place. However Hollywood was different, as he realised after watching ‘Transformers’. He was inspired by Shia LaBeouf, the film’s lead actor, who was just 21 years old when he made it big soon after”, says a friend of the actor.
When the sequel to ‘Transformers’ was announced, Varun was quite serious about auditioning for the film and pronto packed his bags for the West.
“This was four years ago and Varun started auditioning for many Hollywood films”, the friend continues, “He wasn’t even thinking of Hindi movies then and Karan Johar was definitely not in his plans since he worked only with Shah Rukh Khan.”
Things changed though when he joined Karan as an assistant director on My Name Is Khan. How he was roped in as a male lead for Student Of The Year is already a much told story.
“I had thought that I would start on my own”, confesses Varun, “I had some very different ideas about my start in the film industry and did go to West to try my luck. Yes, Shia was a huge motivating factor as well. I went ahead and did quite a few auditions. However as it is always said, ‘you don’t choose your first film, it’s your first film that chooses you’. I am still shocked by the fact that it is Karan Johar no less with whom I am making my debut.”
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